Connor Jessup, 22, is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as Ben Mason on TNT’s Falling Skies. In 2012, Jessup’s performance in Blackbird earned him a “Rising Star” accolade, and he was later named one of Variety’s “Actors to Watch”. (Getty)

New York, NY (September 13, 2017) – The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), the nation’s premier member organization of independent filmmakers and storytellers, announced today that Academy Award® and Golden Globe winning actress Nicole Kidman will receive the Actress Tribute and Academy Award® and Emmy® nominated cinematographer Ed Lachman the Cinematographer Tribute at the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards. The first awards show of the season, the IFP Gotham Awards is one of the leading honors for independent film and media, providing critical early recognition to groundbreaking independent films and their writers, directors, producers, and actors with ten competitive awards categories. The IFP Gotham Awards also honors selected film industry icons as tributes each year. The ceremony will be held on Monday, November 27, 2017, at Cipriani Wall Street, New York City.

“It is truly an honor to present Nicole Kidman with the Actress Tribute this year. Her choices in projects throughout her career have been bold and carefully selected, ranging from thought-provoking independent films and studio blockbusters to unique and original television series. She has consistently sought out roles of complex characters and delivered them with unforgettable, iconic performances that have unequivocally placed her amongst one of the greatest actresses of our lifetime. We are delighted to celebrate her lasting contributions to the art of film and television,” said Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center. “Likewise, we are thrilled to present Ed Lachman with the Cinematographer Tribute. His creative contributions to independent films along with his collaborations with countless filmmakers are legendary. His talent to transform what viewers see on screen is one of a kind and worthy of recognition.”

Nicole Kidman gained universal attention in her turn as Rae Ingram in Dead Calm, Philip Noyce’s critically acclaimed psychological thriller. She was honored with her first Oscar® nomination for her performance in Baz Luhrmann’s innovative musical, Moulin Rouge! For that role as Satine, and her performance in writer/director Alejandro Amenabar’s psychological thriller, The Others, she received dual 2002 Golden Globe nominations, winning for Best Actress in a Musical for Moulin Rouge! In 2003, Kidman won an Academy Award®, Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours. In 2010, Kidman executive produced and starred in John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole, for which she received Academy Award®, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild and Independent Spirit Award nominations. Kidman also appeared in HBO’s Hemingway and Gellhorn alongside Clive Owen in 2012, garnering her Emmy®, SAG and Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal as Martha Gellhorn.

Recently Ms. Kidman was seen in The Weinstein Company’s Lion with Dev Patel, for which she received her twelfth Golden Globe and fourth Oscar® nomination, and alongside Reese Witherspoon, executive produced and starred in HBO’s limited series Big Little Lies, which earned Kidman her second Emmy® nomination. Currently, she can be seen in the Focus Features release of Sofia Coppola’s Cannes Jury Award-winning, Southern Gothic, The Beguiled.

She will be seen next in the A24 release of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Killing of a Sacred Deer. In addition, she will star in Neil Burger’s The Upside, continuing her decades long collaboration with Harvey Weinstein and The Weinstein Company. She will also be seen in the second season of Top of The Lake (SundanceTV/BBC Two) this fall.

In January of 2006, Kidman was awarded Australia’s highest honor, the Companion in the Order of Australia. She was also named, and continues to serve, as Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women, UN Women, whose goals are to foster women’s empowerment and gender equality, to raise awareness of the infringement on women’s human rights around the world and to end violence against women. Along with her husband, Keith Urban, she has helped raise millions over the years for the Women’s Cancer Program which is a world-renowned center for research into the causes, treatment, prevention, and eventual cure of women’s cancer. In 2017, the Cannes Film Festival honored Kidman with a special award for her body of work and longstanding history with the festival. She is one of only eight people to ever receive this honor in the 70-year history of the festival.

Ed Lachman is one of the most lauded cinematographers today, working in both documentary and feature filmmaking. A master of light and framing, Ed’s most remarkable gift is his ability to enhance the telling of any story through the moving images he creates; a visual nonverbal language that can evoke emotion, reveal hidden facets of a character and aesthetically unfold the tone of the narrative. Ed has collaborated with world renowned directors, including Todd Haynes, Sofia Coppola, Werner Herzog, Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders, Volker Schlondorff, Ulrich Seidl, Paul Schrader, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Altman, and Todd Solondz. Lachman’s collaborations with Haynes have garnered him an Emmy® nomination for Mildred Pierce, and two Best Cinematographer Academy Award® nominations, the first for Far From Heaven, and most recently for his work on Carol. In 2016, Lachman was the recipient of the German Marburg Film Prize for his contribution to German cinema; he is the only American to receive the honor. In 2017, the American Society of Cinematographers bestowed upon Ed the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Ed has also received the Golden, Silver and Bronze Frogs at Camerimage Festival, the esteemed international festival for cinematographers.

Kidman is represented by CAA, Media Talent Group and attorney Alan Wertheimer.

IFP recently announced that former Vice President Al Gore will receive the Humanitarian Tribute and Film Producer and Founder of Blumhouse Productions Jason Blum the Industry Tribute at the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards.

Each year IFP chooses a jury of stellar peers from the documentary, feature ﬁlm and TV industry to award the Gotham’s competitive awards. The ten competitive IFP Gotham Awards for 2017 include Best Feature, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Documentary, Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director, Breakthrough Actor, Audience Award, Best Screenplay, Breakthrough Series – Short Form, and Breakthrough Series – Long Form. Once again this year, the IFP Gotham Audience Award (the only non-juried category) will be open to voting by IFP Members worldwide as a beneﬁt of membership. Voting will take place online in November.

The Premier Sponsor of the 2017 IFP Gotham Awards is The New York Times, and the Platinum Sponsors are the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Office of Film, Music and Entertainment and Greenslate. Additionally, the awards will be promoted nationally in an eight-page special advertising section in The New York Times in November 2017.

Nominees will be announced on October 19th and winners will be honored at the star-studded ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street on November 27th. To purchase tables or tickets to attend, please contact Steven Pfeiffer by email at spfeiffer@ifp.org, or by phone at (212) 465-8200 Ext. 219.

The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) champions the future of storytelling by connecting artists with essential resources at all stages of development and distribution. The organization fosters a vibrant and sustainable independent storytelling community through its year-round programs, which include Independent Film Week, Filmmaker Magazine, the IFP Gotham Awards and the Made in NY Media Center by IFP, a tech and media incubator space developed with the New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

IFP represents a growing network of storytellers around the world, and plays a key role in developing 350 new feature and documentary works each year. During its 38-year history, IFP has supported over 10,000+ projects and offered resources to more than 20,000+ filmmakers, including Barry Jenkins, Laura Poitras, Debra Granik, Miranda July, Michael Moore, Dee Rees, and Benh Zeitlin. More info at www.ifp.org.

About the IFP Gotham Awards
The IFP Gotham Awards, selected by distinguished juries and presented in New York City, the home of independent film, are the first honors of the film awards season. This public showcase honors the filmmaking community, expands the audience for independent films, and supports the work that IFP does behind the scenes throughout the year to bring such films to fruition.